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December 6, 2008
In meetings held Friday morning, local AT&T employees got some details about the mass layoffs the company announced Thursday.
AT&T said Thursday that it will eliminate 12,000 jobs companywide, mostly in landline operations, but wouldn't say how many jobs it would cut in the Wichita area.
Brenda Honse, executive vice president of Local 6402 of Communications Workers of America, said local executives told workers and managers that the company would first ask for buyout candidates. Those employees will be gone by Dec. 30, she said.
The job cuts will continue through 2009, the company said.
Honse said AT&T has about 650 hourly employees and 100 to 150 salaried employees in Wichita.
About 225 hourly employees work in the landline operation, the one targeted for reduction. These workers install and maintain landlines and handle customer calls and billing, she said.
Hourly workers taking the buyout would receive severance pay based on formulas in the union contract, she said.
Workers were ready for the bad news after the company's announcement Thursday, she said. But the rumor mill has run wild.
"I was receiving a lot of phone calls about 'Who are they? What department? I heard this number or that number.' "
"When we hear those things we try to squelch it," Honse said. "At this point we don't have any information."
Company spokesman Walt Sharp said the landline business has been falling fast as people switch to mobile phones or other providers, such as cable or Internet-based phones. The company lost 4 million accounts in the first three quarters of 2008, and the recession will compound the problem, he said.
Per the union contract, some of the workers who lose their jobs in landlines will be offered jobs in the company's growing video, wireless and broadband sectors.
"We are doing our best to work with these employees who are affected," he said. "We have always done that."
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